Has anyone experienced this, I have underactive thyroid, Vit B deficiency ( 3 monthly injections ) high calcium levels and low Vit D levels. Consultant has put me on Vit D tablets to try and lower my calcium. For the last 2 weeks my knee joints have been hurting, now my elbows have started and it feels like my bones are now aching ( to the point where it wakes me up ) also just had RAI treatment for goiter! Any advice ? Thank you

12 Replies

Hi. It could be the vitamin D deficiency that is causing the joint pain. It could also be that you are not taking enough thyroxine yet or it could be that you are not converting the thyroxine into t3 very well.

It's a good idea to get a printout of your thyroid results. They may be in the normal range but they may not be normal for you.

Other things to check are serum iron, ferritin, folate, vitamin B12 and cortisol. These could be having an effect on how well you are able to use the thyroid hormones.

Another thing to remember with vitamin D supplements is that you should also make sure you are getting enough vitamin K2 and magnesium. You may find that you benefit from taking a magnesium supplement, especially as your calcium is currently high. It's a good idea to read about magnesium supplementation before starting. There are several different types and some are definitely better than others.

I get terrible knee joint pain which is releived when my levo has been upped ( although this is an ongoing saga....) I use Better You Magnesium spray ( you can get it on the net) as you can spray this directly on to joints and magnesium doesn't absorb very well in tablet form.

Mmw-15, Joint pain may be due to low vitD but your endo should have tested parathyroid hormone (PTH) as calcium is high.

High calcium + low vitamin D is commonly due to hyperparathyroidism which can be caused by an adenoma on one or more of the 4 parathyroid glands. Your GP can test parathyroid hormone (PTH). Supplementing vitD may elevate your already high calcium.

Thank you for your reply, I asked my consultant if it could be my parathyroid and she said she wants me on the vit D tabs for 8 weeks to see if the calcium comes down, I am going to insist that my GP test my PTH - is this just a blood test ? because I am getting increasingly worried about it all now and very fed up. I went private and still came out confused.

Hiya, you have a few things going on so this might not be of any benefit to you.. When my GP deigned to test vitamins/minerals, my vitD came back below ref range.. she gave me a big "loading" dose then 1000 IU (25 mcg) per day maintenance. I continued to have bad joint pain, including very painful ache in my tailbone, with very bad pain there when standing or shifting my sitting position plus debilitating foot and lower leg cramps in the evening and at night in bed.

After reading around i upped my vitD dose. Trial and error. For me 4000 IU (100 mcg) daily,keeps most of the joint pain at bay and stops the awful cramping.

GP won't prescribe the 4000 IU, only the 1000 IU, so i have to pay for 3/4 of my daily dose.

As others have said, you might want to look at other things going on, so my own experience may be useless in solving your issues.

Thank you, that's really interesting, I'm now at a point where I'm going to insist on getting the answers now, I keep being told wait another 8 weeks wait for this wait for that

( and this is private as well)

I'm going to go back to the doctors Tuesday because I emailed my consultant and still waiting for a reply so now I'll go back to GP and get every blood test going. You just get to a point when you've had enough of feeling poorly don't you !

Just to say I am hypothyroid and have chronic pain. I also had vitamin D deficiency ( so did my husband and mother). We all took the course of medication. Looking for a sunny holiday! I also have vitamin B12 deficiency (so does my mother) and have to have the injection every 3 months. I was sleeping all the time and I have so much more energy now.

Hi thank you for replying, I have more energy after the injections but still low because of the underactive thyroid, I'm going back to docs this week to ask for more blood tests because of the high calcium levels as well. I'm on Vit D to try and lower my calcium

( that's what consultant said ) so we will see. So much waiting, I wish it just wasn't so complicated x